From Maimonides and Nahmanides to Simone Luzatto

Reflections on Judaism and Jewish identity

主讲人：Mordecai Cohen, Yeshiva University; Mina Lee, Tokyo University

时间：5月28日，29日，30日，每天18:30-20:30

地点：山东大学中心校区知新楼A1721报告厅

 讲座内容纲要：

In this course we aim to address the following 2 key questions:

· What is the purpose of the Law (Torah)?

· How does this define Jewish identity?

These and related issues will be explored through the interpretations of the Law given by Jewish thinkers in the medieval and early modern periods.

1. Nahmanides on “Sanctity” and the “right and good” (Cohen)

a. Biography of Nahmanides (Spain, 1194–1270)

b. Four-fold interpretation of the Bible

c. Interpretations of Leviticus 19:1, Deuteronomy 18:6

2. Simone Luzzatto on Jewish Morality (Lee)

a. Biography of Simone Luzzatto (Italy, 1583–1663)

b. Jewish identity as a tolerated minority in early modern Italy

c. Christian critiques of Judaism

d. Simone Luzzato’s Discorso

i) Chapter 13: Law of Moses obligates charity to human beings in general

ii) Chapter 14: Although the Jews are religiously different, they should be protected

3. Maimonides on the Goals of Human Perfection (Cohen)

a. Biography of Maimonides (Spain, Egypt, 1138–1204)

b. Commentary on Job

c. Maimonides vs. “The opinion of our Torah”?

d. Alternative interpretations of Job in Modern Jewish Thought

阅读材料：

Primary texts

1. Bible texts: Leviticus 19:1–2; Deuteronomy 6:18; Job 1–2, 42

2. Commentary of Nahmanides on Lev 19:2, Deut 6:18

3. Maimonides, Guide of the Perplexed, III:22–23

4. Simone Luzatto, Discorso circa il stato de gl’Hebrei, Chapters 13, 14

Secondary readings

5. Mordechai Cohen, “Maimonides’ Disagreements with ‘The Torah’ and Talmud in His Interpretation of Job,” Zutot: Perspectives on Jewish Culture 4 (2004): 66–78.

6. -----. “Nahmanides’ Four Senses of Scriptural Signification: Jewish and Christian Contexts,” in Entangled Histories: Knowledge, Authority, and Transmission in Thirteenth-Century Jewish Cultures, ed. Elisheva Baumgarten, Ruth Mazo Karras, and Katelyn Mesler (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017), 38–58.

7. Mina Lee, “How to Become a Citizen? Morality and Religion Among Jews in Early Modern Venice” (conference paper).